Spiral arm structures revealed in the M31 galaxy

TL;DR

This paper investigates the regular patterns and structures in the spiral arms of the M31 galaxy, revealing differences in star complex distribution, magnetic fields, and arm morphology, and discusses their implications for spiral arm theories.

Contribution

It provides detailed observations of star complexes and magnetic fields in M31's arms, linking these features to spiral arm dynamics and instabilities, and compares different arm segments.

Findings

Star complexes in the northwestern arm are regularly spaced and have similar sizes.

Magnetic field wavelength matches the spacing of star complexes.

Differences in arm structure relate to pitch angles and presence of dust lanes.

Abstract

Striking regularities are found in the northwestern arm of the M31 galaxy. Star complexes located in this arm are all spaced 1.2 kpc apart and have similar sizes of about 0.6 kpc. Within the same arm region Beck et al. (1989) detected a regular magnetic field, and we found that its wavelength is the spacing between the complexes. In this arm, groups of HII regions lie inside star complexes, which, in turn, are located inside the gas and dust lane. In contrast, the southwestern arm of M31 splits into a gas and dust lane upstream and a dense stellar arm downstream, with HII regions located mostly along the boundary between these components of the arm. The stellar density in the southwestern arm is much higher than in the northwestern arm, and the former is not fragmented into star complexes. The age gradient across this arm have been found in earlier observations. According the classical SDW theory, these drastic differences may be due due to their different pitch angles: about 0 degree for northwestern part of the arm and about 30 degree for the southwestern segment. Data on M31, M51, M74, and some other galaxies suggest that star complexes are mostly located in the arm segments that are not accompanied by a dust lane upstream, i.e. do not host spiral shock wave. The regularities in the distribution of complexes along a density wave spiral arm are most probably due to the development of the Parker-Jeans instability, which builds up star complexes if the initial SFR in the arm is low and, as a sequence, magnetic field is regular along the arm.